Selling a 12 year old house with no completion certificate

[OhDeareyMe]

Hello, I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on where I go with this. I have a fairly bespoke house, we built it ourselves (DH is an engineer) and it fully inspected by building control all the way through the build and built to a very high standard. However, we did not get a final completion certificate as we never envisaged moving.

We did end up moving out a while ago and have been looking to sell the house (very rural location, unique bespoke house at the top of the price bracket for the area). We have recently had an offer made on the house but the issue of the completion certificate is bound to come up isn't it?

I have remortgaged the house myself twice during the time I lived there (once for a better deal, once to free up some capital) and the certificate wasn't even mentioned either time.

Is this definitely going to scupper this and any future sale?

Do I own up, bite the bullet at an early stage and see if I can get the certificate issued now? I've been reading about indemnity insurance policies, has anyone used one?

I can't sleep for worrying since I realised it might be an issue, as we had remortgaged without it arising and gone through conveyancing each time, it hadn't really occurred to me as a problem.

Thank you.

Not the same scale as you but we knocked down a (non supporting) wall and had to get an indemnity certificate when we sold which didn't affect our house sale at all, the buyer wasn't the slightest bit fussed. If the house has been standing for 12 years, it's unlikely to fall down so an indemnity policy might cover it, it probably depends on the buyer.

Is there any reason that you can't get a completion certificate now? I think your solicitor should be able to advise.

Personally, I'd accept an indemnity certificate for a boiler or extension, but not an entire house. I think it is likely to come up if you try to sell it.

If you had building control all the way through the build, is there any reason why you can't just ask them to come and sign off?

Personally I would own up as soon as possible (and also look into trying to get it signed off if you can).

We pulled out of a purchase in December due to the lack of a certificate (this was building regs for a conversion). It may have been salvagable if we'd known earlier on (although ours kept insisting that it had been signed off, which I'm sure you wouldn't do). Knowing anything like this means there is less scope for a sale failing later on because the buyer didn't know all of the facts when they put their offer in.

They may be ok with it - I dont think waiting and telling them later will make much difference. Good luck.

What does your solicitor say? Ask what she would advise if you were buying it.

How much hassle is it to get one?

I think this is too big a thing to just leave. I'm pretty bullish on houses and have accepted indemnity policies for various things in the past including lack of PP and building regs but I wouldn't even look at this for a whole house.

You should be able to go back to building control and ask them to reinspect now so I suggest you do that asap.

Why don’t you just get the completion certificate? That will be the easiest thing to do all round. We left 8 years between the completion of our house and getting the certificate (all the mis build inspections had been done, but our builder just stopped turning up so we never got round to getting the job signed off).

Have the electrics been signed off?

It took about a ten minute visit - job done. Stop worrying and get in touch with building control!

Get the certificate issued now - it should be easy. We had to do this last time we sold - there are many threads on here about this issue.

Seems nobody takes responsibility for getting the certificate issued at the end of building works - i assumed the builder would do this but they dont and the council never follow up so it must be us home owners who need to remember!

Just get them to come out. I had my extension built 8 years ago. The builder was convinced it needed a certain lock on it so we put off getting final inspection and then we kind of forgot about it. Then when we decided to sell we just had them come back - they had the file, knew what had been seen before and issued the certificate (i did have to pay an additional £120).

Just apply for the certificate we got ours with a delay of 15 years!

Agree with pp, get them to come out and issue the certificate as soon as you can.

It’s really common to have an indemnity policy if e.g. a garage conversion has no building regs, but for a whole house I think you definitely need the certificate.

If a seller was wanting to issue an indemnity rather than get it signed off I'd assume that there was something wrong.